Do you need to build a cell bank to maximize target population coverage? Are you unsure of the odds of finding donors that will match your cell therapy criteria? Do you need to know how your allogeneic donor choices for source material will impact your therapy? Or if you can use your human leukocyte antigen (HLA) data that has significant gaps and ambiguities?
Our Bioinformatics Consulting team can help.
Tap into our experts for models, analyses and interpretations that offer answers and provide assurances as you plan for cell therapy development and clinical trials. Our insights are powered by the partnership of Be The Match BioTherapies® and the CIBMTR® (Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research®).
Our Bioinformatics Consulting service supports your cell and gene therapy company through multiple stages of therapy development.
Our data and analytical expertise help you define your targets and build your allogeneic off-the-shelf cell bank.
Working with our team gives your company access to unique and expansive clinical outcomes, CIBMTR data and donor registry databases available only through our organization. You’ll receive insightful data analytics and modeling based on decades of cell therapy research.
Bioinformatics Consulting
Cell source optimization
Identify and compare optimal cell sources (adult donors or cord blood units) with HLA/KIR characteristics that capture product criteria.
Population coverage
Optimize candidate donor choices to maximize target patient population coverage and minimize cost and redundant effort.
Histocompatibility and genotype interpretation
Identify favorable factors of histocompatibility and HLA/KIR genotype interpretation for therapy success.
Population-level imputation
Resolve ambiguities and missing HLA locus information in study data using population haplotype frequencies and unique expertise in HLA/KIR genotype.
Population haplotype frequency estimates for multiple U.S. and world populations developed using HLA data from millions of volunteer donors.
Population modeling and match projection
Project match likelihoods in certain populations, cell sources and/or geographical areas using customized modeling.
Projections derived from Be The Match Registry® data—the most diverse repository of HLA data collected from healthy adult volunteer donors and umbilical cord blood.
Cell bank design and optimization
Optimize cell source type, high potential genotypes and sample size to maximize target patient population coverage.
Uncover actionable ways to put research into practice
Our team has the expertise to help you develop, validate and improve your products. Let’s start the conversation.
Case examples from the Be The Match BioTherapies Bioinformatics Consulting team
How will therapy-specific constraints for cord blood unit inventory impact the ability to match the broader patient population?
A client wanted to use population data to understand match likelihood for specific U.S. patient populations based on the current cord blood inventory on the Be The Match Registry. The client had several constraints.
Our team ran the data and delivered the report to the client. The insights gained led to further exploration into different populations or cell sources.
Example of match likelihoods for U.S. patient populations based on cord blood inventory listed on the Be The Match Registry
How will therapy-specific constraints influence optimal cell bank design to cover a patient population?
A client aimed to create an off-the-shelf allogeneic cell therapy product. Their goal: optimize candidate donor choice to maximize target patient population coverage and minimize cost and redundant effort.
The Bioinformatics team modeled three matching scenarios using tailored algorithms based the client’s biological constraints.
The client used the information to determine the cost effectiveness of creating the product bank for each scenario.
Example of three matching scenarios the Be The Match BioTherapies Bioinformatics team provided a client
Additional case examples:
Consult with a Bioinformatics team uniquely qualified to support your cell therapy needs
Our HLA and KIR work span decades. Our researchers and scientists advance the field of immunogenetics and hematopoietic stem cell transplant/cellular therapy genomics through the CIBMTR Bioinformatics Research Program.
That experience—along with more than 30 years of patient outcomes data for hematopoietic cell transplantation and cellular therapies—allows us to develop methods that support proper donor/patient histocompatibility for allogeneic cellular therapies.
This includes population imputation, population genetics, cell bank and match rate modeling, and projection and cell source optimization.
Bioinformatics Consulting Team
Martin Maiers
Vice President, Research
Abeer Madbouly, PhD
Principal Bioinformatics Scientist
Michael Wright
Scientific Coordinator
Heather Stefanski, MD, PhD
Vice President, Medical Services
Steven Devine, MD
Chief Medical Officer Senior Scientific Director
Recent research published by the Be The Match BioTherapies Bioinformatics Consulting team
A common allele of HLA is associated with asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection (Nature, July 2023)
Trans-population graph-based coverage optimization of allogeneic cellular therapy (Frontiers, May 2023)
Assessment of HLA-B Genetic Variation with an HLA-B Leader Tool and Implications in Clinical Transplantation (Blood Advances, January 2022)
Predicting HLA-DPB1 permissive probabilities through a DPB1 prediction service towards the optimization of HCT donor selection (Human Immunology, December 2021)
GRIMM: GRaph IMputation and Matching for HLA Genotypes (Bioinformatics, September 2019)
Demographic history and selection at HLA loci in Native Americans (PLOS ONE, November 2020)
A Detailed View of KIR Haplotype Structures and Gene Families as Provided by a New Motif-Based Multiple Sequence Alignment (Frontiers in Immunology, November 2020)
Put our experience and expertise to work for you.
Let’s start with a conversation so we can learn more about your company’s needs.
Access additional services for allogeneic cell therapy developers
Allogeneic Cell Sourcing
Source high-quality adult donors that match your therapy needs and receive end-to-end support from donor identification through cell delivery.
Cord Blood Unit Sourcing
Get comprehensive visibility and streamlined access to the fully characterized domestic cord blood unit inventory.
Get the answers you’ve been looking for
Let’s discuss your needs and how our Bioinformatics Consulting professionals can support your allogeneic cell therapy development.